Minister, I think it’s significant that the 1,100 jobs that were taken from Cardiff resulted in just 250 jobs, according to reports, by the time they got to Dundee. So, no doubt there were a range of factors at work, but clearly automation is happening now; rather than being a future prospect, it is live and it’s impacting our communities.

I was pleased to invite you along to a roundtable on Monday with a range of experts in automation, artificial intelligence and robotics to start considering the scale of the impact that this can have on our economy. I’m delighted to hear you’ve commissioned a piece of research on the particular impact on retail and I would urge you to make sure that your economic strategy, when it’s produced, has a specific focus on automation—not simply on the threats but the opportunities too. That was one of the messages from the roundtable on Monday: there are very real advantages to public services, and to all of us as consumers, from automation, but there’s no denying the fact it’s going to change the shape of our workforce and the way that we work and we need to be ready for it.